Day 4:
"Woke up after a good night sleep and said goodbye to the hostel we had been staying at.
Our first stop of the day was to get the metro to our new hostel. When looking for hostels to stay in, I decided I wanted to mix it up and stay in two different places. The first hostel we stayed in was more traditional and shared a bedroom with two other people. This new hostel was more modern, I would even say very hipster, and we had a room to ourselves, which I'm very glad we did as one of the ladies in our first room had a terrible cold that I caught.
We arrived at Nui Hostel and Bar Lounge where we checked in and dropped off our luggage. We returned to the Metro and too it to Daimon Station to visit the Pokemon Centre. We followed our map to a building, as it isn't well signed on the way and arrived to a shop full of Pokemon goodies. Charlie fell in love instantly in the shop, being an avid fan today. I too am a fan still, of the games, not so much the series. I ended up buying quite a few items for my little sisters birthday, as well as a present for my younger brother. While in the store we came across Michael again, so joined forces and headed downstairs to where a load of kids were training and having Pokemon battles on their Nintendo Ds'. So cool. We then found these Pokemon machine that you had to queue for, where you battle and then catch a Pokemon. It's a hard concept to explain, but if you get the opportunity, I recommend having a go. While Charlie had a go, Michael and I observed two little boys pounding away at the machine. They seemed like experts as they had already caught quite a few pokemon (which came on a micro card that you inserted into the machine to battle with).
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| Charlie outside of the Pokemon Centre |
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| Kids battling each other with their Nintendos while waiting to get a special pokemon added to their game |
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| The Pokemon game we played, weren't suppose to take a photo |
Michael then left us and we went to 7/11 where we bought some snacks and then headed to Hama Rickyu Park. It was here where the imperial family had tea ceremonies. And so did we, it was scrummy btw. Had instructions on how to eat the sweet and then the cold matcha in the traditional way. We had the option for cold matcha as it was another incredibly hot day. Cost us 1400 yen in total (£8.20).
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| Tea ceremony with cold matcha and a bean paste sweet |
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| Inside the traditional Tea House |
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| Outside the tea house |
We then wandered around the park more and then on our way to the station came across a festival type
thing outside a tv centre. We stayed there for over an hour, as we were captivated by the events taking place (games with cute characters etc) and then headed to Asakusa to the market to buy some souvenirs. After the market we went back to the hostel. We rested for a bit and freshened up. Then we decided to have cocktails and dinner at the bar on the ground level of the hostels as it was one of the reasons we chose the hostel. Charlie had a teriyaki pizza and I had ginger chicken. It was delicious! Literally amazing, served with aubergines and mushrooms. Probably the best chicken dish I have ever had.. and that says a lot if you know me.
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| Ginger Chicken with shitake mushrooms and aubergine at the Nui Hostel Bar |
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| One of the many cocktails you can get at the Nui Hostel Bar |
After dinner we went to the cinema and watched the new Studio Ghibli film the Wind Rises in Japanese. Brilliant, a more serious film and Charlie loved it too. Especially considering he could not understand a single word. I understood about 50% of the dialogue."
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| Myself posing with the Wind Rises promo poster |
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| A 'small' caramel popcorn in the cinema, it was larger than the size of my head! |
As an update I have recently seen the film again in English and it is just as beautiful as I remember. Captivating and one of Miyazaki's greats.
Zoe x
